Stone Mountain Meats Branding
Stone Mountain Meats was a new business in the in-demand meat processing industry. Part of my job with every client is learning about their industry, and while I have worked in dozens of industries, I knew next to nothing about meat processing when I started this project.
While they did an outstanding job of informing me of their business phases, process, and long-term goals, I made it my job before and after our strategy interviews to do tons of research on the industry as a whole.
Because I asked the right questions, I was able to immerse myself in the industry, become a “temporary team member” of their business, and understand their ideal customers. I was able to develop this brand with strategy, allowing them to stand out from the crowd and target the right customers, and allowing every brand asset to be created with purpose, consistency, and authenticity as seen below.
Brand Messaging
It was important that they communicated messaging that aligned with their target audience: local heads of households (men and women) providing for their families. Because of their caring, family-friendly nature, messaging needed to avoid harsh or potentially off-putting terms and focus on values (ethical, focused) and results (quality, trusted processing).
Here is a small sample of their messaging:
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Stone Mountain Meats provides family-owned, ethical meat processing in East Tennessee.
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Family-owned Stone Mountain Meats, located at the base of Stone Mountain in Greeneville, TN, combines modern technology with traditional values. Their dedication to quality and community makes these engineers-turned-butchers a trusted source for ethical meat processing in the East Tennessee region.
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Engineers-turned-butchers: Processes, systems, and community-focused solutions come naturally for our father and son owners.
Dedicated to quality and community: We are hyper-focused on quality and safety because we know our local farmers are counting on us.
Modern technology, traditional values: While we hold tight to old-fashioned service and values, we use modern technology for an efficient process.
Local to Greeneville, TN: Born and raised here, we are passionate about helping our neighbors provide for their families.
Logo Design
The logo design is usually the first brand asset that brings the strategy to life visually for new brands. For Stone Mountain Meats, I was even able to give it a hidden element, which is always a plus because it’s incredibly unique to their business.
The font choice of Roboto Slab nods to “modern technology” with mechanical, geometric letter forms and natural, friendly curves.
The font choice of Corner Store JF nods to "traditional values" as a nostalgic script font that mimics hand-lettering seen on old-fashioned storefront signage.
A landscape represents a thriving community, a core value of their brand. The lined circle helps to simplify and modernize a more detailed and traditional landscape. The straight lines offer balance at the bottom, as they tie in with the lined circle.
The main focus is this element... The light gray color suggests it’s a stone mountain, but the shape and markings suggest it’s a T-bone steak. The steak represents their other core value of quality meats.
To really drive home the fact that the steak is also meant to appear as a stone mountain, the tree, grass, and creek (based on actual visuals from the property) were added as visual accompaniment, along with mountains in the background.
It was important for me to note the location and that the business is family owned to provide context and add another layer of trust building.
Color is so important to design, so each color is meticulously chosen with intention, and you can get an idea of why I chose each color below.
Green is associated with nature and symbolizes freshness with an added warmth to this shade that is emotionally positive.
Blue is the preferred color of both genders, symbolizes trust, and provides another nod to nature (sky and water).
Light gray is the color associated most with stone. It symbolizes reliability and stability.
Black brings sophistication, professionalism, and seriousness to the design.
Photography
I always advocate for brands to include photography from the get-go because it really does add another level of trust and authenticity that can’t be replicated without seeing the faces behind the company. I was able to use their brand strategy to inform the style, colors, and shot list for the photography needed to establish them as a legit business.
Website
Oftentimes, branding really feels real once it’s all combined onto a website. Since I knew the brand so well and had been involved since inception, I was able to build the site and supply nearly all of the written and visual content, making the entire branding process from start to finish extremely hands-off for the business owners. That is such a rarity - to have someone on the outside that understands your brand well enough to create assets on your behalf with minimal feedback and tweaking - but I pride myself on being able to do it since I’m pretty much a temporary team member.
T-Shirts
I worked with my friend Tara at Branded to have some t-shirts made for promotional items and staff uniforms.
Signage
I designed and ordered vinyl sign for the front door so passersby would know what was in that new building on Horton Highway. They also had a hookup for a really cool focal wall with a stand-off metal sign in the lobby.
Business Cards
While business cards are not needed in every industry, they are important to local businesses that benefit from in-person network referrals. Not only do business cards convey important contact information (name, title, email, website, address and phone number) - sometimes, they’re the first exposure to the business/brand. I designed these cards to have a light stone texture to them, too.
Results
“Before talking with Briana, I thought I knew what I wanted our logo to look like: a distressed butcher shop logo with crossed knives or a butchers cleaver with a beef head. After she asked us questions about our vision for our business and our target audience, I definitely see how important that process is in determining branding decisions. It totally changed the direction of the logo design and really all of our marketing. The messaging, logo, photography, and website have all allowed us to stand out in our industry and connect to the customers we always hoped to have. She took care of it all after our initial conversations; we could focus on our business while she focused on our brand. Our branding has taken our business to another level.”
Does your business need a level-up like Stone Mountain Meats?
I’d love to hear about your vision and where you’re currently at in the branding process. Let’s hop on a quick call to chat! Want to learn more about the branding process they went through first? Cool, just click the button below.
